Man held in killing of guard at nightclub
A 21-year-old security guard at an Aliso Viejo nightclub was fatally stabbed in the neck early Monday during a fight in the parking lot with a New Year’s party patron.
Brandon White, who lived in Dana Point and was in the final phases of becoming an Orange County sheriff’s deputy, was trying to help another security guard outside the Time Out Tavern & Night Club when he was killed, said sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino.
The attacker fled in a red car and was tracked to Hesperia, about 80 miles away, authorities said. Investigators were interviewing the 26-year-old suspect late Monday and he was expected to be booked on suspicion of murder, Amormino said. His name was not released. One of his friends was expected to be booked as a suspected accessory after the fact for allegedly helping destroy evidence.
The stabbing occurred about 1:40 a.m. after White and at least two other security guards working the tavern’s New Year’s party went outside to investigate a couple of fights in the parking lot, some of which may have started inside the club, Amormino said.
White was stabbed with a knife while trying to help the guard who had the perpetrator on the ground, Amormino said. White died of his injuries at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo.
Owners and employees at Time Out, which on its website boasts “lots of safe and free parking,” could not be reached Monday night.
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